The need for new and improved methods and agents for pain treatment is a significant ongoing concern in medicine. Acute pain, e.g. related to injury or disease, can be severe and have critical effects on patient recovery. An even greater concern is chronic pain, which affects a large proportion of the population, causing not only significant discomfort, but can result in low self-esteem, depression, anger, and can interfere with or completely prevent a sufferer from typical daily activities.
While a number of studies have been done in this area, many mechanisms and pathways involved in pain sensation remain poorly understood. There remains a continued need to provide new strategies of therapeutic intervention for pain treatment.